Harborfreight racing jack any good?

[ebm34]

Harborfreight is selling a 3000lb rated "racing jack" for $199. It only weighs 37.4lbs. Does anyone have experience with this product, and can it hold up for regular DIY type usage?

[M3inSC]

There was a long thread on one of the other mail lists and people that actually tried the jack seemed to like it. It is cast aluminum, which some thought might be a problem but all in all, the reviews were good. I saw one a couple weeks ago at the track and it looked good!

There also is an AC Hydraulics DK20 floor jack that is a little heavier duty and weighs 65# that I've seen. I haven't seen any reviews of it. BTW, this is not from Harbor Freight, but at http://www.asedeals.com/hydraulicjacks2.html

[randywalters]

One of the guys on the Team-dot-Net autocross mailing list had his break where the pad attaches to the arms. Aside from that i haven't heard of any other problems.

[98///M-DROPTOP]

Originally posted by M3inSC
There was a long thread on one of the other mail lists and people that actually tried the jack seemed to like it. It is cast aluminum, which some thought might be a problem but all in all, the reviews were good. I saw one a couple weeks ago at the track and it looked good!
I've followed the same reviews (don't have this jack myself but I'm considering it) and someone posted about the breakage that randywalters noted from another forum. Attached below is a cut/paste of the breakage discussion, looks like it can be remedied by a hard material insert placed into the cup to disperse the load stress. Other than this one item the opinions were favorable.

FIRST POST: I wondered how long these things would last. Ours is less than 2 weeks old. Part of the weight of the car was resting on one of the four vertical "fingers" surrounding the rubber pad. The finger broke clear off taking about 20% of the circular aluminum pad with it.
FIRST REPLY: Since the vertical fingers are slightly higher than the rubber pad, they carry all the weight when jacking a flat area of the car. In order to avoid this, I remove the rubber pad entirely and replace it with a 3/8" or 1/2" thick piece of wood cut into a circle. (I'm not sure what kind of wood it is, but it's really hard. (Maybe oak or cherry?) Now the lifting load is always carried by the center of the jack pad, not the fingers on the edge. All the fingers do now is keep the wood circle in place.
SECOND REPLY: Most steel jacks have these fingers, presumably as a safety feature to prevent a car's underside from sliding off the jack saddle. However I think that's a design flaw for any aluminum jack. It's easy to see how the jack could be positioned such that much of the car's weight was being carried on one finger. Not only would this put a lot of force on the finger, but it would also apply a large bending moment to the central mount. Aluminum isn't that strong a material, and unless the saddle were made very massive it would be at risk of breakage.

[Bart C]

I purchased one of the AC DK13HLQ jacks after I bought my M3. My old jack just couldn't get under the front. I really love this jack! It's long and low enough to get to that front jack point under the M3. The only thing I dislike is that the release to lower is a bit of a hair-trigger. You twist the black handle counter-clockwise, if not careful this will lower your car VERY quickly!